City officials find 'gentlemen's agreement' with Carver, will help fund events there

Gadsden’s municipal community centers will now be on the same rental fee schedule, and the city will help fund future events at Carver Community Center, following action at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

However, that meeting also produced allegations of “disrespect” from a businessman and activist in the Carver community.

The council on Feb. 28 approved a new fee schedule to rent city facilities, increasing the rates by $7 an hour, with an amendment by District 3 member Larry Avery removing Carver Community Center from that schedule.

Avery wanted language in that proposal changed to reflect that the Central-Carver Reunion, of alumni from Gadsden’s Black high schools during the segregation era, is a biennial event rather than something that occurs every five years.

He later insisted that a “gentlemen’s agreement” had been in place with the city over fee accommodations for the reunion and for the Carver Community Revitalization Committee, which is housed in the community center. (Avery is a former president of that organization.)

Mayor Craig Ford responded by halting future rentals at Carver until, according to a text message that was circulated, “the resolution is completely passed or fails,” saying that it was unfair to other communities to have Carver on a different fee schedule. He also said there was no evidence of the “gentleman’s agreement” Avery referenced.

On Tuesday, however, Ford said he, Council President Kent Back and City Clerk Iva Nelson had become aware of such an agreement, made in 1970, and subsequent “digging” revealed a resolution passed by the council in 2010 “authorizing sponsorship of (the) Carver reunion” and stipulating that the council and mayor’s office “will support and help fund any Carver reunion.”

Meanwhile, council member Jason Wilson, who didn’t attend last week’s meeting, asked the council to revisit its vote on the fee schedule, which he said didn’t follow proper parliamentary procedures. His motion asked that the resolution be presented in its original form, before Avery’s amendment. It passed, with Avery abstaining.

Avery spoke of potentially seeking to amend the measure again; Wilson noted he had that right in the future.

Ford reiterated that it was the city’s intent to “keep the costs of all rental facilities equal and fair.” He said the total rental receipts at Carver in 2022 was $1,500; he committed $1,000 from the mayor’s office to the CCRC to help sponsor all upcoming events for 2023. Council members could also make contributions from their respective discretionary funds.

Fred Zackery of WMGJ Radio, speaking during public comments toward the end of Tuesday’s meeting, said he was grateful for the mayor’s contribution and offered to post the same amount himself, but said Carver deserved more.

He said Carver is owned not by the CCRC, which was created to revitalize the community, but “by every African-American child who went there until 1971, when a wrecking ball went through the building when white kids were supposed to come off the mountain and go there.”

Zackery added, “We can’t get away from our history. What we need to do is claim it and make sure we clean it up going forth.”

He said community leaders “want to grow Carver, want it to be a mecca to people coming into Gadsden,” adding, “If you keep repressing the renaissance of that community, you’re only going to make us angry.”

Zackery said economic factors should be considered when setting such things at rental fees, that different areas have different poverty levels and median incomes, and a one-size-fits-all approach is unfair. “And if you’re not being fair to some people,” he said, “you’re not being fair to all people."

He also criticized what he called attempts “to disparage people who speak up” and disrespect shown toward Black residents in conversations with city officials, and he accused a member of the mayor’s staff of using the word “boy” toward him during a weekend meeting.

Ford said that word doesn’t appear on an audio recording of the meeting, and in response to Zackery’s criticism of what he called racial disparities in hiring at City Hall pointed out that four of his seven staff members would be considered minorities, and that he was “sensitive to that matter” when selecting his staff.

He also noted that former state Rep. Rod Scott, who was introduced as the city’s new planning director and spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, is Black, and that he’s the first mayor to name a city director of diversity, equity and inclusion (Ruth Moffatt).

Ford said in 18 years as a state legislator, and as mayor, “I have always supported Carver Community Center and always will ... no matter how much fuel is thrown on the fire to turn it against me.

“There is a history between me and the gentleman on the third row (Zackery),” he added, “and if I’ve done anything to you, I ask for your forgiveness. I support the African-American community, always have and always will, but I want to be fair to all residents of Gadsden, whether it’s Carver, East Gadsden, Country Club or the Noccalula mountain.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Carver Community Center funding dispute resolved